Hot Topics:

Canon City Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic

Hickenlooper weighs in on Colorado gun issues

By Lynn Bartels and Tim Hoover The Denver Post

Posted:
02/14/2013 11:05:05 AM MST

Colorado Rep. Claire Levy, right, represents her bill, HB13-1226, concerning no concealed gun carry at Colorado colleges, to the House Education Committee in the Old Supreme Court Chambers at the State Capitol Wednesday, February 13th, 2013. Levy's bill passed 7-6 and moves on to a House Appropriations committee. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

A contentious gun battle that could last into the weekend officially gets underway on the House floor Friday, but shots already have been fired, including an ugly committee hearing Thursday that sparked complaints of filibustering and a Soviet-bloc mentality.

All four gun bills scheduled for debate are sponsored by Democrats, who have a 37-28 majority and so far lack any Republican support for the measures.

House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, a Denver Democrat, has pledged a "long and vigorous" debate, no matter how long that takes. The House convenes at 9 a.m. Friday.

Meanwhile, Gov. John Hickenlooper on Thursday shed more light on his positions on gun control, indicating he was supportive of limiting gun magazines to 15 rounds and charging gun buyers for their background checks.

The governor hadn't stated his position on those bills since they were officially announced on Feb. 5 during a news conference attended by victims of the twin 2012 tragedies that rekindled a national debate on gun control: shootings at a Colorado movie theater and a Connecticut elementary school.

The House Appropriations Committee considered three of the gun bills Thursday in an unusually long hearing that included testy exchanges, mostly between Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, and Democratic lawmakers.

Democrats said Gardner's questions at times seemed more like filibustering than attempts to learn information, but he said their refusal to allow him to ask all of his questions reminded him of the Soviet bloc.

Advertisement

"They are struggling to have the rule of law and open debate, and one of the most serious problems that those new fledgling democracies have is an old one: the power of the majority over the minority," Gardner said.

Ferrandino said lawmakers would stay the entire weekend to pass the four gun bills if that was necessary.

"Every member is going to have a chance to speak and debate the legislation," Ferrandino said. "We're going to continue to allow the debate to go on as long as the debate continues to go, to make sure that every side is heard, that every voice is heard."

Hickenlooper, a moderate Democrat who had publicly supported only one Democratic proposal — background checks for private sales and transfers — Thursday indicated for the first time he was supportive of the limit on high-capacity gun magazines.

The bill is bitterly opposed by gun rights activists, and a Colorado company that makes the high-capacity magazines says it will be forced to relocate if the legislation passes.

"They (lawmakers) might end up having to compromise," Hickenlooper said. "Certainly, there might be a number in there that might make sense."

The governor also for the first time said he supported legislation to require gun purchasers to pay a fee for their background checks, something they were required to do before 1999.

"I know this is controversial and I'm going to catch a lot of heat for this," Hickenlooper said, adding, "The folks that are needing, that are making use of this regulatory environment, it seems not unreasonable for them to pay the cost of the expense of that."

Asked about another bill to ban the carrying of concealed weapons on college campuses, Hickenlooper said he had not taken a position on it yet and was still waiting to see it advance in the process.